The savior

The parking lot was empty.

He had taken her car. Him or one of his awful friends.

She went to the apartment, and the door was open. Her phone, keys, purse were all gone. She went into the bedroom. The closet was open and most of her clothes were gone. There was a note on the mirror that said “YOUR NOT GOING ANYWHERE YOUR MINE”

She checked under the bed. Thank god he hadn’t thought to look there. Her laptop with all her songs and poetry was still there. She grabbed it, slung it over her shoulder, and hurried out.

She got back outside to the parking lot just in time to see headlights come around the corner. She froze. It’s him, she thought. He’s back. The fear that had been simmering for months was now a full rolling boil of panic.

But it wasn’t two headlights, it was just one. A motorcycle. The rider was dressed in a brown jacket and jeans and a green helmet that matched the green motorcycle. He stopped in a space not far from her and turned the bike off. He dismounted and took off his helmet.

She hurried towards him. She didn’t realize she was crying until she heard the way she said “Excuse me! Excuse me! Can you help me? Can you please help me?” Through tears she tried to explain everything. He looked at her with a slightly confused expression, piecing the important parts together from her half-panicked, disjointed ramble. He had glasses on, and a kind face.

“Do you have someplace to go?” he asked. His voice was low and reassuring.

“Mom. My mom.”

“Where is she? Where does she live?”

She told him the address without thinking. “Ah ok,” he said. He lifted his eyes and scanned the area absently. “I know where that is.”

“Please,” she said through sobs. “Please. I have to go before he comes back!”

His eyes swept the darkness, then he looked at her. His eyes were calm but sure. They were blue. “What’s your name?”

“Aleesa. Aleesa O’Shae.”

“I’m Brian Rensho,” he said. “You ever ride on a motorcycle before, Aleesa?” he asked. Before she could answer he handed her his helmet. “Put this on.”

While she fumbled with the buckle he swung his leg over. He pointed to a spot behind his lower leg. “Hold my shoulders, step here and swing over. There’s another peg on the other side for your other foot.” As she mounted the bike behind him he pressed a button and the motor whirred to life. It burbled reassuringly beneath her. “Hold onto the sides of my belt,” he said gently. “When we go around a turn, look over my inside shoulder.” And then they were moving.

The farther they got from the apartment, the more she relaxed. And as she relaxed, she began to wonder if she had placed her faith in the right person. They were definitely headed to her mother’s house, and he was riding at a very relaxed speed, but her mind spun with all the ways this could go very very badly.

Her fears seemed to be reinforced when he turned off the highway. But he eased the motorcycle onto a side road and then stopped at a brightly lit gas station. “Why are we stopping?” she asked.

“Try to call your mom,” he said, reaching below her chin to unfasten the helmet strap.

“I don’t have my phone,” she said.

He hesitated, then pulled his phone from his pocket. He entered a code and handed it to her. “I’ll be back in a sec.” He trotted off towards the building.

She called her mother and got no answer. So she texted her a quick summary, and then she quickly shared location with her mom, with no end date. Just to be safe.

She looked up as he came out of the gas station with a bottle of water. He handed it to her unopened, and she opened it and drank greedily. “Okay,” he said. “Your mom’s expecting you?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded. “Okay good.” He took her hand, surprising her. But his grip on her hand was gentle and somehow grounding, and she didn’t pull back. His gaze was direct and firm, but like his voice, soothing somehow. “Now…your apartment. Do you need or want anything else from there? I get the idea you’re never going back, but I could go back and see if the coast is clear, grab a bag of stuff if I can get in.”

She thought about it. He’d taken almost everything. Her phone was the biggest loss, but she was pretty sure she’d never see it again no matter what she did. She shook her head.

He nodded, looking maybe a bit relieved.

“Why are you helping me?”

“Everyone needs help sometimes,” he said. “If you’re ready, let’s get you to your mom.” She took a shaky breath and let it out. “You’re going to be okay,” he said. “You’re stronger than you think you are.” He held her gaze. His eyes were calm, confident, kind. He looked like he very much believed what he was saying, and it made her believe too. She nodded. She put on the helmet.

*******************************

They eventually pulled into her mother’s driveway. He stopped the motorcycle and turned off the engine, and she got off. The lights were off inside. Having no key, she went to the front door and knocked. There was no answer. She started to cry again.

“No one home?” he asked. She sobbed that she didn’t know where she could be, it’s late, she should be here.

She dialed, and it rang, but it went to voicemail. She thumbed out a text, telling her mother she was at her house, that her boyfriend had taken everything, and to please come home. She started to hand him back his phone. “Hang onto it for now,” he said. “She might text back or call.”

“Don’t you need to go?”

He shrugged, gave a small smile. “I’ll hang around till I’m sure you’re okay.”

She looked up at him, so calm and unruffled. He was older than she was, a little grey in his windblown blonde hair, small wrinkles at the corners of his blue eyes behind his glasses. She was holding his phone, holding his helmet, and still half crying, and she went into his arms and wept with her face against his shirt. He smelled slightly of detergent, but mostly like the fall evening air. He held her gently. “It’s going to be okay,” he said. “That sounds like bullshit, but it’s not. Your mom’s going to come home soon, and she’ll take care of you till you get all this sorted out.” He said “It’s a fresh start. Like a chance to start over, chase new dreams, make new friends.”

The phone rang. She wiped her eyes and then answered it. Her mother was yelling as she finally got it to her ear.

They were still on the phone when headlights swung around a corner and the car stopped in the driveway next to his motorcycle. A heavyset lady got out and wrapped Aleesa up in a bear hug as she cried. Mom looked across at him and said “Who the hell are you? You not the boyfriend are you?”

“No Ma’am. I just gave her a ride.”

“On that?”

“It’s all I had handy,” he said.

“You watch your tone with me”

“Mom, it’s okay. He’s nice. He helped me.”

“Go inside, baby.”

“Mom, it’s okay.”

“Inside,” she said. “Now.”

She took his hand, squeezed it, looked into his eyes. There was so much she wanted to say. “Thank you,” she said.

“Just…pay it forward,” he said lamely. She held his eyes a moment more. She handed him the helmet and phone, then she went inside. She looked back and smiled one last time before disappearing.

Once she was gone, her mother looked at him. “So you just the savior huh? White knight on a white horse, that it? Gave my baby a ride for no reason at all huh? Just cause you a regular good samaritan. That right?”

He looked at her steadily. “I was just at the right time and place,” he said. “I was stopping by my brother’s place to feed his cat, he’s in Vegas. She came running out crying. I know how things can be. So yeah. I wanted to help.”